Recently, the present inventors have constructed a system for motor command analysis, evaluation and diagnosis that analyzes the motor commands of a subject during wrist joint movements (WO 2009/028221), and proved that it is possible to fully explain 2-DOF (degrees of freedom) motor components of the wrist joint based on the muscle activities of four prime movers of the wrist joint. Further, the present inventors have established a method for identifying causal relationship between muscle activities and movements in terms of the joint torque. Thus, it has become possible to quantitatively analyze abnormal movements in cerebellar diseases at the level of motor command. There are three major points in this invention.
First, it was possible to analyze motor commands by measuring as few as four wrist prime movers out of twenty and several muscles involved in wrist joint movements.
Secondly, it was possible to record the activities of the above four prime movers with electrodes attached on skin surfaces, without pain and non-invasively.
As a result, it has become possible to perform the analysis of motor commands (which was performed only at the laboratory level so far) simply and non-invasively in clinical practice.
Thirdly, the inventors have further invented an equation for identifying causal relationship between the thus simply and non-invasively recorded muscle activities of the above four prime movers and wrist movements in terms of the joint torque (WO 2009/028221).
Consequently, it has become possible to quantitatively analyze the involvement of individual muscles to abnormal movements in neurological disorder.